Who is in charge of Caravans?

[Drake]

As the subject says, who are we going to say is in charge of Caravans? Gold or Earth? Or will it be both?

Earth needs Caravans to transport raw materials from camps and store houses to work sites and crafting centers.

Gold needs Caravans to transport goods for sale.


Will Earth be in charge of the Materals transport and Gold take charge of Goods transport?

This is not already specified in the Circle charter, though I have touched on it in the Earth charter.

[Dario Tashavan]

Realistically, the way I see it, caravans are a component of an operation, and should belong to whomever is conducting that operation. If Earth is running a mine a hex away, they need to arrange for material transport. If Gold is running an outreach shop in TEO's settlement, they need to supply the caravans. If Steel is deployed to Pax Aeternum's settlement and needs a resupply, they should oversee the caravan. If Light wants to run a relief program to a settlement that just got smashed up good in a war, it's their caravan.

[Hroderich Gottfrei]

I was going to write out a long response, but Dario said it better. I concur.

[Erian El'ranelen]

This is actually one reason I suggested a sub-group to coordinate caravans. While I concur that a Ring with a primary need might "own" the caravan, we should ensure coordination with other Rings in case there's a more efficient use of the caravan. I'm assuming all caravans would plan with Steel, Wood, Shadow, Light, and Crystal for protection/support (and possibly also materials needs). I would actually see Iron and Earth as major caravan organizers more than Gold--we'd be involved to ensure good trade and diplomatic support, but the goods we sale are always going to come from other Rings.

[doomcrow]

I think this is a multi-Ring operation:

Wagons/Transports used in Caravan itself: Gold
Merchants traveling with Caravan: Gold
Goods being transported: Depends on the type of goods so any mix of things falling under Gold, Wood, Crystal, Iron or Earth's purview (Or any Ring that is sending something via caravan).
Protection for Caravan: Light, Steel and/or Wood (given that one of Wood's 'things' are escorts)

So it would be in all of the listed Rings' interest to have some sort of say in the planning and execution of caravans because it's their people and/or resources being sent into danger where anything from monsters to bandits to natural threats can threaten them.

However I think that establishing caravan routes would be something that falls under Gold's purview, as well as Wood's exploratory/escort division. Managing caravans and their scheduling would also be Gold I should suspect. Division of the profit would probably be split proportionally according to each Ring's involvement, or perhaps it goes to whatever Ring's goods are being delivered, with percentages of the profit going to supporting Rings for protection/use of caravan transports to cover operating costs and services rendered.

I think involving Shadow only comes in when one of our Caravans has been raided and its goods pilfered, and Shadow is tasked with getting those goods back and tracking those responsible for the theft. I think Wood would also be involved in the tracking aspect.

Requests for caravans would be made by the Ring who wants their resources transported to Gold, who would arrange for the transport and notify the corresponding Ring for a protective detail. The transport would then leave for the destination, the requesting Ring would load up the caravan upon arrival, and the transport would make for the destination of the goods.

Just a couple of thoughts on the matter. Thoughts?

[Nymerias]

Depending on how the skill system actually works might greatly change how we set this up. We can have a general idea, but it might all get turned on its head. From everything I've read or heard in videos, you will need to train skills to be a merchant or train different skills to be a diplomat.

While it makes a lot of sense to have different rings responsible for different types of caravans, it might end up making more sense for the responsibility to go to one Ring if caravan running is something that is greatly benefited by taking time to train certain skills.

I would really love to see something in the system where I can put a lot of time in a "Handle Animal" skill and when I join you on a caravan my attention to the animals enables them to move faster.

[Erian El'ranelen]

Yes, as with everything we plan we'll have to consider modificaitons as the game mechanics become evident. My standing goal is to balance individual freedom/empowerment with enough organization to keep things efficient and beneficial.

[Gintigael Gemweaver]

That's why I don't like a "sub-group". because it inhibits the individual freedom by making you jump though a hoop of going through this caravan sub-group to get your goods somewhere.
Nym is right, though. We won't know until they talk more about the actual mechanics. The game designers talked about having a wagoneer kind of job, where someone can lug goods around as a profession.
Maybe we could say "possibility of caravan sub-group pending more info from Goblinworks"?

[Erian El'ranelen]

That works for me. I definitely don't want to over-complicate things, but I know if there's no structure at all in place then there's no way we'll be as effecient/effective as possible.

[chaiguy]

I had a related thought while addressing a different issue, how will we keep caravan info secret? I guess we need a way to oginize them withought telling potential bandits the exact details of when/where/how many guards ect. For a caravan.

Also this might do better in the Gold Trade sub folder, just a thought.

[Erian El'ranelen]

I definitely think once we get to organizing real caravans that such should be in threads only visible to Circle members.

[Lorhayden]

I think that we can just have a Caravan thread accessible only to Ring members that we call for members to join in on Caravans on. On the same board if a group is looking for investors from the Circle they can post for those as well.

[Drake]

Some of the systems they have hinted at suggest we may want to set up regular Caravans to deliver goods and pickup resources from camps. I'm thinking the rings of Gold, Earth and Wood would be the major players in organizing the Caravans with members of Iron "hopping on" with deliveries of personal goods and the ring of Shadows keeping their ears open for any word about "bandits" along proposed routes. The other rings would also be called on for defense of the Caravans. Essentially, Caravans will likely end up being a Circle Wide endeavor.

Rings in relation to Caravans
Crystal - Provides Defense and possible Magical enhanced movement.
Earth - Provides Resources that need moved.
Gold - Provides Contacts and finds Markets for our goods, Sells Circle goods.
Iron - Produces goods to be taken to market, sells personal goods.
Light - Provides Defense and possible Magical enhanced movement.
Shadow - Provides the intelligence needed to plan routes and keep them safe.
Steel - Provides strength of arms to defend the caravans.
Wood - Scouts out potential routes and acts as scouts during transit.


Now that I've written that up it almost sounds like a job for an entirely new ring. (I don't think we need another ring though.)


BTW in regards to harvesting, this is what I'm getting from what little information they have put out.

You can harvest very small amounts of certain resources by yourself. If you want to harvest in quantities useful for a Settlement then you will need to set up camps. Once a camp is established NPCs (possibly invisible) will do the actual work. The longer a camp is in operation the more likely an event will occur that spawns monsters that you will have to fight off to keep the camp in operation. The camps will also have a limited amount of storage for the resources being gathered, when that storage is full, the camp stops producing until there is space again.

This would mean it may be possible to run a harvesting camp for days if we have people in the area able to keep monsters, PC "bandits" and rivals from destroying the camp and have Caravans to transport the resources away to where they are needed or can be stored.

As of now, we do not know how Caravans will work. Will there be pack animals and wagons we can use, or are we going to be hauling stuff around in bags of holding (and Devil boxes)? Time will tell but I'm hoping for wagons (even though they are bigger more obvious targets.)

[Erian El'ranelen]

I'm assuming we'll need both established caravans (between settlements/long-standing camps/etc.) as well as more impromptu caravans. Once organized, the established ones shouldn't be as much of a problem--it's really the impromptu ones I'm hoping to cover with an organized, but not overly cumbersome, process.

[spacemuffler]

Should the need arise for administration in regards to the deployment of these caravans, I have no problem taking responsibility for planning any/all routes that are sent from farmland and other agricultural sources falling within my area of expertise in the Ring of Earth and Gold. I should expect I will travel along with any or the more sensitive or invaluable shipments, but given the likelihood of being ambushed I would almost certainly require assistance from our Ring of Steel, and possibly Crystal should any caster be available.